


Eldritch Horrors Await

by Business_Casual



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Drabble, F/F, F/M, M/M, just a little cryptid writing to celebrate the new season of buzzfeed unsolved
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-25
Updated: 2019-09-25
Packaged: 2020-10-27 21:27:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20767208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Business_Casual/pseuds/Business_Casual
Summary: Jonathan Byers goes for a walk in the middle of the night. He experiences Hawkins and it's unusual wonder through a new set of eyes.





	Eldritch Horrors Await

The day, July 22, 1985

The time, 11:53 pm.

The place, Hawkins, Indiana.

Hawkins was always strange.

Small towns in Midwestern America are painted with vivid, homely pictures using a pallet of azure blue lakes, steely grey mountains, and rich coniferous evergreens.

Characterized with rolling hills that depress into golden, sea-like wheat fields. Ideal, and comforting, with boisterous, thriving cities and towns small enough to know your neighbor's neighbor.

Big city folks from places like New York and Los Angeles read brochures for places like Hawkins, Indiana, and think to themselves, “What a charming little town! What a fantastic place to live!”

But they don’t experience Hawkins the same way its citizens do.

Upon passing through, tourists will not see the way the bleached paint on the Hawkins Hotel peels, and how it’s cob-webbed neon sign always says vacancy. Or how if someone follows the train tracks into the shadowy forest, one will stumble upon tall barbed fences that guard even taller buildings. Buildings that hold the ghosts and whispers of past horrors.

It's the type of town that was filled to the brim with secrets that were buried so deep, they would never see the light of day.

Hawkins was the type of place you could live your whole life in, and never truly understand.

During the day, the sun beats down, the concrete lips sealed. Each building and home, silent.

But during the middle of the night, on uncommonly chilled ones near the end of July, the town’s secrecy unravels like a spool of thread. Words and stories flooded the streets like an overfilled teacup, saturating the grass and asphalt.

Jonathan Byers slipped his hands into the pockets of his worn jeans, taking in ta deep breath of cool night air. Despite being known for his photography skills, Jonathan could write an encyclopedia on the secrets of Hawkins, Indiana.

Jonathan walked past the family video store, where he was certain he had seen Steve Harrington loitering at the back door before sliding into the passenger seat of a blue Camaro that quietly pulled up.

From his left, Mike Wheeler sped out from a thrush of trees that led into the thick forest. He had not seen Jonathan, who managed to make out Mike’s insanely dopey grin painted across his face.

He passed two young women, one of which he recognized as Robin, Steve’s co-worker at the video store. She did not register his face as they walked by. Jonathan glanced back to them, able to see their hands tangle together from beneath the sleeves of their jackets. Jonathan smiled before continuing down the street.

In the distance, beyond the trees, he swore he could make out a small figure on a far away hill, tinkering with wires and a makeshift satellite.

When he passed the Sinclair’s yard, Jonathan saw max and Lucas, laying side by side on the grass. Lucas was whispering and pointing at different stars in the sky, while max was uncharacteristically silent. She spotted Jonathan as he strolled by, and in the dark, he thought he saw Max lift her hand in a hesitant wave.

Jonathan smiled and continued to walk. Trekking further into the night, through a dead-end town, clinging to its citizens for life.

His watch beeped, and the green analog read 12:00 am. He closed his eyes and made a wish, praying to god, to the universe, or to whatever there was up above.

He wished for safety. And he wished for hope.

Then Jonathan turned around, and walked back home.


End file.
